(November 8, 1991) After running our account of the blockade of the convoy carrying spent fuel rods from Brunswick, Germany to the Dounreay reprocessing facility in Scotland (WISE News Communique 360.3557), we received a letter from Lindsay Stevenson of Scotland Against Nuclear Dumping (SAND).
(361.3574) WISE Amsterdam - As the person who organized and coordinated the actual tracking operation between the time the waste left Dover and arrived at Winfrith, she thought we might like a fuller version. We are publishing a summary of that letter because we thought our readers might also be interested, especially as it gives a good example of excellent organizing.
On 25 September, Pete Roche from Greenpeace in London contacted Stevenson to tell her the waste was moving. As soon as they had spoken, she contacted the Scottish and English Nuclear Free Zone (NFZ) Authorities, a number of key Scottish Local Authorities and individuals and groups they had previously contacted regarding the possibility of tracking the waste and taking action against. A quantity of leaflets SAND had printed back in February, when they first thought the waste was coming, were also immediately distributed to groups in key areas. Stevenson also contacted a number of people South of the Scottish Border, and with their help, by the next afternoon there was a skeleton tracking phone tree firmly in position throughout England.
Word came early Friday morning (27 Sept.) that the waste had come in at Dover. Groups in the Dover area (KARE and FoE) -- who had, said Stevenson, done "sterling work" in tracing it across the Channel -- kept watch on the waste at Dover docks, photographed it, alerted the media and kept Stevenson constantly informed of what was happening. The folks at Greenpeace London also kept information flowing and supplied the folks from NENIG, who just happened to be nearby at a seminar when the whole thing started, with a mobile phone which further aided information flow. Greenpeace's Damon Moglin also ensured that people were fully briefed on all aspects of transport and safety.
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DOUNREAY SIGNS NEW CONTRACT WITH FRG |
On Sunday, local people at Winfrith kept watch, but the waste convoy -- consisting of a low-loader truck and one unmarked car carrying two armed UK Atomic Energy Authority police as escort -- was able to slip out unseen early the following morning. By this time, Stevenson was working closely with the Faslane Peace Camp and experienced Nuke Watch and Cruise Watch people throughout Britain were involved, so they were fairly confident that they would be able to locate the convoy. What they had not counted on, though, was the speed at which it was travelling. (It was later estimated to have been averaging at least 50 miles per hour and took few, or no, rest stops.) By the time the convoy crossed the Border on Tuesday, it was travelling "like a bat out of hell", to quote the man they had watching there.
"From then on," said Stevenson, "it was (fairly!) easy. A few phone calls ensured that there were people out tracking the progress of the lorry right up the length of Scotland..." Many of them were awaiting the convoy's arrival with actions prepared. When folks from Peace House, Dunblane picked up the convoy near Stirling, they drove a car covered in placards in front of the truck with their headlights full on, drawing the attention of other drivers to the load and trying to slow it down. Ellen Moxley of Peace House said it was absolutely terrifying. The truck drove right up behind them, refused to slow down and tried to bully them out of the way. Finally, on a stretch of dual roadway, they were forced to one side by the car carrying the UKAEA police. After that, they followed the convoy as far as Perth where it was picked up by more protestors. Two of these protestors, also in vehicles, did manage to force the truck to slow down to a reasonable speed, but within a few miles they were picked up the local police and charged with "obstructing the passage of a lorry" and dangerous driving.
After that, the convoy drove under constant observation. Before it reached Kessock bridge outside Inverness in Northeast Scotland (site of the 1 October blockade we wrote last issue), it stopped on the moors for a couple of hours. During that time, the accompanying UKAEA police were in constant radio contact with UKAEA police and plainclothes intel-ligence men on the bridge. At one point there were more than 30 protestors on the bridge, but as the afternoon wore on, many of them, mothers with children to collect from school in particular, had to leave. When the numbers were down to about 20, the truck began to move. By then, the protestors on the bridge included a number of local Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament activists, Scottish National Party (SNP) ac-tivists, local anti-nuclear activists, Green Party members, Councillor Winter, and a number of local people who had no connection with any organization but had simply heard that the waste was coming and wanted to show their opposition.
Meanwhile, the media in Scotland had become interested in the activity on Friday, when Faslane Peace Camp told a journalist on the Sunday Mail about the waste and referred him to Stevenson. Various councillors whom Faslane and Stevenson had contacted with information put out press statements which received coverage in the national press on Friday and Saturday. But it was the Sunday coverage which caught public attention and focused national television and radio interest. "We had certainly not anticipated anything like the interest or the coverage which the issue received -- having had long experience with media apathy on nuclear matters," said Stevenson. "I spent the week sleeping on the settee beside the telephone and being woken at five in the morning by BBC Scotland TV for an update was a new experience!"
Local groups contacted their own local media, but even small local papers were phoning Stevenson and Faslane asking for information. "Even working together, Faslane and myself, on the Monday and Tuesday with three lines between us, and with SCRAM [Scottish Campaign to Resist the Atomic Menace, in Edinburgh] also taking calls, there was no way we could cope with the volume of demand for information. In addition to the media calls we were contacted by people who wanted to go out and protest and wanted to know when, where and how. We passed them on to local coordinators. In the midst of this bedlam we were also keeping the tracking organization going! It was absolutely amazing...no one in the movement here has ever seen anything like it. It was a completely spontaneous expression of total outrage by the people of Scotland."
On Tuesday, the local radio station at Inverness broadcast the story of the events building up at the Kessock Bridge and asked everyone who passed the protestors and supported them to hoot their horns. "From then on there was a constant barrage of horns -- not too encouraging for the UKAEA watchers in their cars." When the waste arrived, the radio broadcast the protest live. The road was blocked in both directions for over a mile.
Since then, protests have been sent to the German government by various local Councils and also by Canon Kenyon Wright of the Campaign for a Scottish Assembly, in the name of the people of Scotland. The matter was raised in the European Parliament by Mrs. Winnie Ewing (though, sadly, several Scottish Labour MEP's voted against here motion, presumably because she is SNP).
NFZ Local Authorities of Scotland are preparing for the next time, and there can be no doubt about the continuing level of opposition within Scotland to Dounreay's commercial reprocessing plans. "For ourselves," says Stevenson, "following this experience we have tightened up the tracking network and streamlined our organization so that hopefully next time we can improve our performance."
Source: Letter from Lindsay Stevenson (SAND), 29 October 1991.
Contacts: SAND, 9, Main Road, Castlehead, Paisley, PA2 6AH, Scotland.
NENIG, Bain's Beach, Commercial Street, Lerwick, Shetland, UK; tel: (0595) 4099; fax: (0595) 4082; e-mail - Comet: Rose Young, Greenet: nenig.
SCRAM, 11 Forth St., Edinburgh EHA 3LE, Scotland; tel: 031-557 4283; fax: 031-557 4284.